Jesus Consoles the Women of Jerusalem

“A great crowd of people followed him, among them many women who were beating their breasts and mourning for him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. If you must weep, weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the women who never gave birth and never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us!, and to the hills, Cover us! For if they treat the green tree like this, what will happen to the dry tree?”” (cf. Lk 23:27-31)

Look

In the crowd there are women beating their breasts and mourning. Jesus turns toward them. His words are not a gentle thank-you: “do not weep for me.” He looks beyond the road of that day and sees the days of disaster that will come upon the city. The question about the green tree and the dry tree is a warning, and those words also invite us to conversion today. Tears of compassion are good, but he wants more than that: a heart that turns back.

Ask your heart

Are you often moved by suffering without letting it change anything in the way you live?

One small thing

Tonight, take five minutes to examine your conscience: find one thing you need to change, not just something that makes you sad, and write it down in one line.